I have been happily surprised over the last few days to see that many of the bank-owned listings on the market are - wait for it - nice!

I have several buyers looking in a comfy first-time homebuyer price range under $140,000.  There has been no shortage of listings to show them, but most of them were vacant, dirty, full of trash, etc.  It may be easy for a seasoned investor to see beyond the yuck and envision what a few thousand dollars and some sweat could do for a place, but for first-time homebuyers looking for that first step onto the property ladder, it’s more difficult.  They are used to looking at and living in tidy little rental units that are professionally cleaned for showings and move-ins.  It’s got to be a bit discouraging to look at house after house filled with the foreclosees left-behinds.

But, just in the last couple of weeks, I have seen a DRASTIC improvement in new bank-owned listings in this price range.  Are banks and their listing agents finally realizing that spending a few hundred dollars to have the house cleaned up and the trash hauled away is well worth it?  I bet they are - because several of these shiny new listings have only been on the market a few days and they already have multiple offers.

Hopefully the rest of these lenders will get on board, because even if a house is really out-dated and missing appliances, it’s way easier for Buyers to picture new paint and carpet if the house isn’t knee-deep in garbage!  

If you are a Buyer stuck in a price range with nothing but bank-owned properties, try to keep the following in mind:

- One rough day of clean-up might save you thousands of dollars off of the purchase price!

- Prices in a lot of areas right now are 25% lower than they were at this time last year.  That savings will buy a lot of paint!

- Go look at some Open Houses in the area that have been “flipped” or that are at least in great shape - this will help you see what that little foreclosed on, outdated house can look like with a little time and money!